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Photo and Story by Mackenzie Smith Kelley. 

Last Tuesday, I took a PCR Covid test in preparation for a photoshoot I would be traveling for on Saturday. On Friday I received the results, fully expecting them to be negative before leaving town the next day. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The rapid test I took on Friday came back negative.

If I had just used the rapid test, left town and rode in the car with Maite, the food stylist for the photoshoot, then joined a crew full of people on set, I could have infected Maite and an entire group of people in another city.

Thankfully my symptoms have been relatively mild. We are ok. I am not doing great, but I am ok. Sleeping for 4-8 hours during the day, nagging headache, nausea. No respiratory issues.

I still can’t pinpoint where I contracted the virus, as we have taken every recommended precaution— and then some, to protect ourselves and our pod.

Echoing the words of Kristen Miglore, who found herself in a similar situation last month:

“I’m sharing this to add one more voice to the chorus of pleas: Take this more seriously than ever. Understand and honor the timelines of exposure, testing, and contagiousness. Whatever precautions you’ve let lapse over all these months—consider bringing them back. Lean on Zoom and FaceTime. Be patient—we will see each other again. Take care, for yourself, your loved ones, and our strained first responders.”

If you are counting on testing for an added level of safety before you are around other people, please consider skipping the rapid antigen test and building PCR tests into your schedule. It takes longer to receive the results, but in my case it is clearly worth the extra time. This article explains the difference between the two.

We are not even close to being out of the woods with this thing yet.

A few days before I received the dreaded positive PCR, began quarantine, and put myself to bed for a week, we got our CSA with an order citrus that included a big bag of oranges and a big bag of grapefruits. That afternoon, I made a sunny salad by supreming 2 of each citrus, sprinkling with confetti herbs, feta, dried chili and sea salt, then drizzling with olive oil and raw honey.

Symptoms didn’t really start to show up until after I received my positive test, and I haven’t had much of an appetite since then, but I have been forcing myself to drink a glass of OJ/grapefruit juice every day for all that locally grown vitamin C.

Below are the ingredients I used for the salad, but as always, I encourage you to use what you have and make it your own. Happy citrus season, y’all.

• 2 grapefruits, supremed
• 2 oranges, supreme
• 2 golden beets, steamed and sliced
• Mint & cilantro, chopped
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• Crumbled feta
• Drizzle of honey
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Dried chili pepper
• Flaky sea salt